Carlos Castaneda's extraordinary journey into the world of sorcery has captivated millions of Americans. In his eagerly awaited new book, he takes the reader into a sorceric experience so intense, so terrifying, and so profoundly disturbing that it can only be described as a brilliant assault on the reason, the dramatic and frightening attack on every preconceived notion of life that is don Juan's remarkable legacy to his apprentice.

At the center of the book is a new and formidable figure, dona Soledad, a woman whose powers are turned against Castaneda in a struggle that almost consumes him. Dona Soledad has been taught by don Juan, transformed by his teachings from a bent and gray-haired old woman into a sensual, lithe, deeply sexual figure of awesome and mysterious power, a sorceress whose mission is to test Castaneda by a series of terrifying tricks. In dona Soledad, Carlos Castaneda has recorded for the reader a personality as instantly recognizable as don Juan himself and has illuminated the strengths and the feelings of a remarkable woman who, despite her sorceric gifts, expresses some of the deepest and most basic feminine concerns and ambitions. For dona Soledad, drawn out of the shadows of a defeated and meaningless life by don Juan, has herself become a warrior, a hunter and "a stalker of power." Castaneda's combat with her, his gradual realization that she not only derives her power from don Juan but is fulfilling his plan, is all a prelude to an astonishing discovery. For Castaneda unfolds for the reader a sorcerer's family, in which dona Soledad, her "girls," Lidia, Elena ("la Gorda"), Josefina and Rosa, themselves changed and transformed by don Juan, are part of a small closed society in which the teachings of don Juan have become a way of life, touching and explaining every aspect of the world, altering the relationships between them so that they are no longer mother and children, man and wife, sisters and brothers, friends and enemies, but disciples, witnesses, accomplices in don Juan's grand design.

Extraordinary as all Castaneda's books have been. The Second Ring of Power goes far beyond anything he has written before. It is a vision of a more somber, frightening and compelling world than that of Castaneda's years of apprenticeship... the world of a full-fledged sorcerer, in which dangers lie in wait on the journey to impeccability and freedom, and in which the message of don Juan must be transformed into real life.